February 17th, 2011

Saw a Northern Shrike today.  It’s a robin-sized bird that preys on rodents and birds and insects.  It catches its prey with its beak, usually breaking the animal’s neck, or crushing its skull.  I haven’t seen a shrike catch anything, but apparently it is a violent affair.  The shrike today was at the top of a tree, probably scouting for prey. 

A few years ago at Laurel Creek we had a shrike hanging around every day.  It would sit at the top of the same few trees.  So one day I had a grade 4 class doing a bird study, and we see this bird at the top of a tree.  The tree is far away.  I tell the students, “That bird way up there is a Northern Shrike!  It’s called the ‘butcher’ bird because it will impale its prey on thorns and barbed wire, and then pull pieces off over a few days.”

“It’s so far away,” says a student.

“Experience children!  I’ve watched this bird the past few weeks.  I know its habits.  You’ll just have to trust me on this one.”

“It’s flying towards us!”

“No worries children, you are much too big for it to catch.  But it will go after anything it thinks it can capture, including grasshoppers, garter snakes, but not…”

“It’s a Blue Jay!”

Pause.

“So it is!  The Blue Jay.  Uh, symbol of our beloved baseball Jays.  A trickster for sure!  Mimics the call of the Red-tailed Hawk.  Impersonates shrikes!  Yup.  There it goes.”

Picture by Marek Szczepanek.